I'm sure that this last fall when practices started getting going that we all thought that by the early January portion of the season that we'd have FIVE teams tied for first place at 6-2 in the conference and two more right behind them with 5-3 records, right? RIGHT?? Well, here we are and this is exactly the scenario that we're looking at and in all my years of doing this, I've never faced a more convoluted mess to try and even attempt to untangle to even make a little bit of sense of all this. At this point, the only thing I can say with even a reasonable amount of certainty is that MIAC Women's Hoops right now seems to resemble the Pac-12 in football where teams just cannibalize each other where things become almost unrecognizable in the end. With that said, after much thinking and hemming and hawing, I'm going to try and see if I can untangle this mess. Needless to say, this could be fun (if not outright hilarious):
1. GAC
2. (tie) Hamline & CSB
3. (tie) Bethel, St. Kate's, Augsburg & Concordia
4. St. Olaf
5. Macalester
6. SMU
7. Carleton
8. St. Scholastica
Trust me, I went back and forth several times in how I wanted to do this and ultimately I left GAC in the top spot alone only because of how they responded from Wednesday night's inexplicable home loss to Bethel (a game where they had control of things up until the final few minutes) with a resounding victory at Carleton yesterday that gives me the impression anyway that they've fixed whatever had been ailing them previously. They have what appears to be a winnable game (at least on paper anyway) on the shores of Gitche Gumee Wednesday night at St. Scholastica but then a big game looms this next Saturday when the Gusties come to the Twin Cities to face a suddenly-hot St. Kate's team.
Okay, so now here things get interesting......Now, I could have easily put either CSB or Hamline on that top line with GAC but the fact that the Bennies blew a 13-point lead at St. Kate's on Wednesday night and then had to hang on down in Winona against SMU yesterday leaves me feeling a little iffy about this squad. True, they're still very good and they showed me something when they got that thrilling win at Hamline a month ago but I've got to see this team do more things like this on a reasonably consistent basis before I feel infinitely better about them. It's a good news/bad news proposition for CSB this coming week. The good news? Two home games. The bad news? Opponents are Concordia and Bethel, respectively.....And Hamline? Well, we saw how things went kablooey for them (again) at Augsburg as 1-14 shooting from behind the arc in the second half alone doomed them. This is an incredibly athletic team that can hurt you in a lot of ways and can score points in bunches but they haven't really developed a real down-low threat yet and, because of that, they can be one-dimensional. That aspect cost them yesterday. Hamline does have things in their favor Wednesday night when they travel down Snelling Avenue to face Macalester at Leonard Center but then Concordia pays a visit to venerable Hutton Arena on Saturday.
Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any messier, Bethel decided to say "Watch this!" as they recorded a huge road victory Wednesday night at GAC and then turned around and got dough-popped by St. Olaf at Robertson Center yesterday in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated. Going 16-64 from FG range for 25% as the Royals did yesterday was indicative that as good and as dangerous Bethel can be with their defense, there's still some obvious issues on the offensive end. And this next week is a challenging one to say the least for Head Coach Jon Herbrechtsmeyer and his staff as the Royals make the short trip to Butler Center on Monday night to face a suddenly-hot St. Kate's team before hosting SMU on Wednesday night and then making a trip up to St. Joe this next Saturday to face aforementioned CSB. Going 2-1 in this next week wouldn't be terrible but you can't count out them going 1-2 either......And St. Kate's - what an incredibly fun team to watch and it's entirely possible that Head Coach Don Mulhern's team might be the most dangerous team of all out there right now. They erased a 13-point deficit to knock off CSB this last Wednesday night in dramatic fashion and then stunned the entire MIAC (if not the entire upper Midwest) by going up US Highway 10 and the BNSF's Staples Sub mainline to Moorhead yesterday and taking Concordia to the woodshed. Now, the 'Cats face the daunting task of not only coming back to Earth but a crucial three-game homestand this week - Bethel on Monday night, Augsburg on Wednesday night and then GAC this next Saturday. The guess here is that we'll find out a lot more about St. Kate's in a week from now......Augsburg continues to show that it relishes in living dangerously and after an easy win on Wednesday night, they had a near-remake of last season's MIAC Playoff Semifinal Game where they again came from behind to hold off Hamline. I don't believe they can live that way all season long, however, and a trip to aforementioned St. Kate's on Wednesday night before a big home game with a suddenly-improved St. Olaf team next Saturday makes this a potentially dangerous week for them.....To me, Concordia HAS to be the most baffling team of all. Consider: They knocked off #6 Amherst in OT and easily beat Salve Regina out in Vegas right before the first of the year. Apparently, however, what happened in Vegas - STAYED in Vegas as the Cobbers recorded a seemingly blah victory at Carleton this last Wednesday night before getting run out of their own cavernous Memorial Auditorium up in Moorhead yesterday by St. Kate's. After that win over Amherst, I honestly thought that this team had "arrived" and was going to challenge for MIAC honors. After yesterday, I really am unsure what to think and when you consider that the Cobbers have to go on the road this next week to face CSB on Wednesday night and then come down to the Cities to take on Hamline, I become even more unsure. As I said before, we'll find out a LOT more about this team after this coming week.
Finally, I'd be amiss not to give due props to St. Olaf Head Coach Kelly Mahlum and her team as the Oles are easily the most improved team in the conference considering where they were the last couple of seasons. I think it's safe to say that this team is still something of a work in progress but yesterday's win at Bethel definitely put the MIAC on notice that this Ole team is at the very least going to be a factor and that you do not want to take this team lightly.
Well, that's it for this first week of Power Rankings. I know it's a mess and you may have different thoughts and opinions so do feel free to fire away with thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment